Dr. Cornel West: Politicians Only Talk Gun Control When ‘Vanilla’ People Get Shot

Dr. Cornel West, who has long been a vocal critic of the plutocrats and oligarchs controlling the beltway, has never shied away from being politically incorrect, and he didn’t start with the tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Speaking candidly on the Smiley & West Show, which he co-hosts with his close friend and adviser, Tavis Smiley, West said that though he’s glad that celebrities and politicians are finally beginning to call urgent attention to the national issue of gun control, it’s a shame that horror had to affect the “vanilla side of town” for it to happen:

“We can’t just shed tears for those on the vanilla side of town,” West said, “they are precious, but they are no less or more precious than our poor brothers and sisters on Indian reservations (who are killing each other) or be they black or brown or what have you.”

“But it’s a good thing that we now have a discussion on gun control. We need one on drone control,” he continued, “not a peep, not a mumbling word when black folk get shot. But now, Newtown, Connecticut, vanilla side — low and behold we got a major conversation. That’s wonderful. Each life is precious but it just upsets me when we’re so deferential.”

This is not the first time that West has made mention of the melanin-lite side of the tracks.

Speaking on the murder of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham, who was chased by NYPD officers to his grandmother’s home, where they kicked in her door and gunned him down in an upstairs bathroom, West said that the “cowardly” President Barack Obamawould not dare be silent on that kind of tragedy in the White community.

If the same thing happened on the vanilla side of town, among the upper-middle class white brothers and sisters, there would be a major outrage and in fact we’d probably get some comment from the White House, we’d get comments from the governor. We’d get comments not just from the mayor, but from a whole wave of people who for the most part are silent about these things. And it’s just sad and ridiculous that we have to deal with this kind of double standard.

As previously reported by NewsOne, Dr. West made waves earlier this year when he called Obama a “Rockefeller Republican in Blackface.”

President Obama immediately held a solemn press conference, during which he seemed on the verge of tears, following the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza, shot his mother in the head while she slept in her bed in the wealthy enclave, drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, slaughtered 20 children and 6 adults at close range, and then killed himself as law enforcement closed in on him.

First Lady Michele Obama penned an open letter to the victims’ families.

The POTUS has made no public statement about the violence decimating urban communities, specifically in Chicago, at any time other than MTV during the election cycle. Both Obama and Romney expertly dodged the question of gun control during the presidential debates.